Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes [182]
‘OK,’Tara said, a slow burn of excitement beginning. Maybe he’d be half decent. ‘When?’
‘Saturday night?’
‘Can’t. The Saturday after?’
‘Done.’
‘And he’s nice, this Barney?’
‘Benjy. He’s lovely.’
‘Well, if he’s anything like your boyfriend he’s bound to be gorgeous,’ Tara praised. She turned away too soon to see alarm zigzag across Amy’s porcelain face.
69
‘For the thirty-first year running, the award for Best Collection of Molecules goes to Katherine Casey.’ Joe smiled down at Katherine, who was sprawled naked and languid on his bed. ‘And that’s not just on planet Earth, you know,’ he added, knowledgeably. ‘That’s universe-wide.’
‘We have to get up for work,’ she said, without much conviction.
‘You’re going nowhere, young lady.’ Joe was stern. ‘Not until the doctor has examined you.’
Katherine giggled, but her heart squeezed a slow thump of excitement. This game was even better if you were wearing clothes to start with, but what harm?
‘Now what appears to be the problem?’ Joe’s expression was severe.
‘It hurts.’
‘Where?’
She wavered, then pointed to her abdomen. ‘Here.’
‘Show me,’ he ordered, strictly. ‘I’m a busy man, show me exactly where.’
‘Here.’ She touched herself lightly and squirmed with embarrassment and arousal.
Joe placed a cool, doctorly hand on her pubic bone and, with his thumb, began to stroke in an idle fashion. ‘Here?’
‘Lower down.’
‘Ms Casey, you must show me exactly where!’
Her eyes closed, she took his hand and moved it.
‘Here?’ he demanded.
‘In more,’ she gasped.
‘Here?’
‘Yes.’
Some time later Katherine’s muffled voice emerged from under Joe. ‘We really have to get up for work now.’
On the way for her shower she almost tripped on the collection of free weights that were gathering dust by the door. Then went into the bathroom where there was a long-dead plant on the windowsill, the only shampoo was Head ‘n’ Shoulders and there wasn’t any conditioner at all.
Joe’s flat was reassuringly that of a single man. But not for much longer. Katherine had every intention of changing it.
She darted back into the bedroom wrapped in a beige, threadbare towel. ‘I’m late. I must iron my shirt.’
Joe tried to pull the towel off her and she scolded him, ‘No. Leave me alone and have your shower or you’ll be late too.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
Dejected, he trudged to the bathroom.
She was dressed when he returned and he checked her out in her slim pale-blue suit. ‘Possibly the best girlfriend in the world,’ he said softly.
‘I bet you drink Carling Black Label,’ she replied, her gaze focused on his groin. ‘Now get dressed.’
‘OK.’ He sighed.
She dried her hair, put on her make-up and rummaged in her purse.
‘Oh, Joe, I need change for my tube fare.’
‘Help yourself.’ He swept aside the jacket of his suit and angled his hip at her.
‘No,’ she giggled, ‘I’m not putting my hand into your trouser pocket.’
‘If you want your tube fare,’ he grinned, wickedly, ‘you’ll have to.’
She hesitated for an awkward moment, then slid her palm into the secret cave of his pocket, over the slippery cool lining and the jut of his hipbone and into the recess weighed down by coins. But she’d lost interest in the money because under the pocket she could feel something else. A luscious, squeezy swelling. Expanding and moving, unfurling and hardening, coming to life beneath her. Her hand began to seek and stroke, moving and…
‘No!’ she exclaimed. ‘We’ll never get to work at this rate!’
She pulled out a pile of coins, selected what she needed and returned the rest, letting them fall and jangle back in.
‘Sorry.’ She was sheepish. ‘I’ll get you later.’
‘Too right.’ He smiled. ‘How about a session in the gents’ at work?’
‘No.’
‘Aw.’
‘I was saving that for your birthday. Now you’ve ruined the surprise.’
‘Were you really?’ he asked, curiously. He never really knew with Katherine, she was such a funny mix of the prudish and the raunchy.
‘You’ll have to wait until July to find out, won’t you?’ She gathered up her things. ‘Gosh, this phone weighs a ton.’
Katherine had unplugged the phone from